Obama Signs Executive Order Creating White House Council on Women & Girls
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Pres. Barack Obama today signed an executive order creating a special White House Council on Women and Girls, saying the cause of gender equality dates back to the founding of the United States, the promise that natural and democratic rights would be acknowledged for all citizens.
The president noted that women make up 49% of the American workforce but hold only 3% of our Fortune 500 CEO positions, that half the US population are women, but only 17% of the elected representatives in Congress are women. He also cited the disparity in pay between men and women, doing the same work.
He also sought to tie other social services and political issues to the treatment of women by society, generally. “When there’s no affordable childcare, that hurts children who end up in second-rate care”, Obama said, noting that substantial family leave provisions that allow parents to care for children or sick relatives are necessary for keeping families together and giving kids the best chance at a bright future. He also suggested that high childcare and healthcare costs can limit women’s freedom to pursue education or careers appropriate to their talents.
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Obama noted the trailblazing performance of women in science, the military and athletics and praised the enforcement of Title 9, which ensures women receive as much funding priority at universities as men do. The reference to Title 9 suggests the president is convinced that policies that ignore an imbalance between the treatment of men and women are inherently unfair and violate the spirit of the nation’s founding documents.
He appointed Valerie Jarrett, one of his top advisers, to lead the Council, in order to ensure that the Council on Women and Girls be closely linked to the White House and “be directly accountable to [the president]“. The Council will include every Cabinet secretary, as well as the heads of every cabinet-level agency, with regular meetings to address the role of government in living up to “the responsibility for the advancement of women”.
The unique forum of the Council on Women and Girls will allow for the examination of national policy through the poweful lens of a regular conference of Cabinet agencies.
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[...] Obama brought the US in line with UN policy on gender rights, establishing for the first time a White House Council on Women and Girls, to ensure that the treatment of women is fair and equitable in American society broadly, and in [...]